How Can the Cloud Benefit my Business in 2025?

2025 is set to be a very difficult year for business.  The economic challenges, stiff competition, cost pressures and rapid innovation are combining to create a headache for IT leaders. 

Modern IT services can transform the operations of an organisation and allow it to succeed in this challenging environment. 

Our clients are telling us they need to achieve three things to support their organisations: 1. Reduce Cost, 2. Delivery Security, 3. Innovate.  In this article, we will consider each of these and how IT leaders can support their organisations. 

1. Reduce Cost 

IT budgets are under considerable pressure.  In addition to rising internal costs, IT service providers are significantly increasing their prices.  Recent months have seen considerable increases by companies as varied as VMware, Microsoft and Canva.  This increase in price for IT products is expected to continue. 

Internally, employment costs are increased as a result of inflation and taxation changes.  In this environment, how do IT leaders cut costs, whilst maintaining service to the business? 

One option is to move into the cloud, for those businesses with on-premise infrastructure.  This can deliver several cost benefits including: 1. Direct infrastructure cost savings, 2. License reductions (e.g. Microsoft and VWware), 3. The ability to use open-source services, 4. Reduced staffing requirements. 

Cloud services are charged on a usage basis, creating a flexible model in a cost-focused business.  If usage declines, e.g. to a reduction in staffing or as a result of a business downturn, IT costs also fall. 

2. Security 

Cyber security is an increasing challenge, with threats significantly elevated and almost constant attacks.  Most organisations are unable to afford world-class cybersecurity products and specialists, but they still need to remain as secure as possible. 

The risks of a breach are considerable, loss of income, compensation to customers, reputational damage, payment of fines, payment of ransoms etc.  In an environment where spare cash is limited, a successful attack could be the end of a successful business. 

There is no simple answer to cyber security, but cloud-based services can significantly reduce the risk.  The cloud can provide leading-edge security designs, encryption, secure back-up and services automatically split across multiple data centres.  A large number of security standards are included out of the box, and an extensive range of world services are available on demand. 

3. Innovation 

While dealing with these huge challenges of budgets and security, thinking about innovation is a lot to ask.  But organisations are in a race against their competitors and failing to innovate is unlikely to result in long-term success. 

Of course, innovation can cover many areas, but a great deal relates to IT services.  Innovation could be in customer portals, customer communications, machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence and so on.  Given the wider business challenges, innovation needs to be delivered at a low cost and quickly. 

Cloud-based services can greatly help with innovation.  A large number of innovative services are available immediately, on a pay-per-use basis.  We can set up Proof of Concepts in hours, at minimal cost, and new developments can be launched quickly. 

Conclusions

2025 is set to be a difficult year for businesses, with pressures across the board. Cloud-based services, if delivered correctly, can deliver significant cost, security and innovation benefits. 

Interested if the cloud is the right choice for your business? We offer a complementary service that does just that: